A Shade Arrives Out of the Blue
Jolts of excitement in the men’s fashion cycle are so rare that when something happens, guys pounce. They’re now paying attention to shirts of a particular blue.
In nature that color is periwinkle. Inasmuch as periwinkle doesn’t have a particularly manly ring, the hot new blue is being called French, cornflower, cobalt, azure and other deeps. The color is strong, intense and handsome, and the idea that those qualities may rub off on the wearer surely accounts for some of its new popularity.
The shade first popped up in America two years ago at the men’s designer collections. Some of the trendiest males attending the shows broke out in tone-on-tone blue shirts and solid ties. They looked sexy, they looked vigorous, they looked employed, they made the black-on-black pack look like slackers.
Although the color is generically known as French blue in the apparel industry, the Italians are responsible for its cachet. Milanese and Florentine industrialists have always been partial to strong blues, a preference that may be a reaction to white shirts, which in Europe are the uniform of aspiring civil servants. In America, the white shirt still rules the executive suite, but the color wheel is turning.
“We inaugurated that blue over two years ago and it met with such immediate success that we have now rolled it over in many variations in textures, patterns as well as broadcloth,” says Michael Gorelick, vice president of product development for Phillips-Van Heusen, the dress shirt company that produces labels such as Geoffrey Beene, Aigner, Bass and private stock for top retailers.
At Brooks Brothers Clothiers, there’s the story that Sean Connery in a French blue shirt in “Just Cause” stirred up sales.
Julie Downs, a Brooks Brothers store manager, says deep blues have been moving remarkably well and men are asking for the French blue spread collar and French cuff style.
We are seeing that rare convergence of trendy and mainstream thinking. Warren Christopher, clothing and grooming editor of Men’s Health magazine, has a practical nuts-and-bolts appraisal of the French blue phenomenon.
“It’s a power shirt as opposed to that washed-out Oxford blue. It has pizazz and everybody looks good in it. A French blue shirt with French cuffs has powerful style.”
